The Crime Prevention Office of USC is trying to warn students about an ATM scam that could come to the university.
According to Cpl. Kenneth Adams the scam involves the criminal slipping a small piece of plastic into the ATM that prevents the card from being expelled from the machine.
The criminal then waits for someone to use the ATM. Once they lose their card in the machine, the crook approaches them and suggests that he knows how to get the card back.
The criminal instructs the ATM patron to enter their PIN number while the criminal holds down both the "cancel" and "enter" keys. The criminal continues doing this until the victim's PIN number is memorized.
After the victim becomes frustrated and leaves, the criminal pretends to do the same. But once the victim is out of sight the crook returns to the machine and removes the piece of plastic and the victim's ATM card along with it.
Adams said USC received the scam alert through a network of shared information with other universities.
Adams said he has not heard of any incidents at USC, but he also had "no info about who exactly is doing it or how many times it has been done."
Adams stressed that upon losing a card to an ATM people should cancel the card, just in case.
After losing a bank card, there are "two places you need to call: the bank the card belongs to and the company that has the ATM," said Adams.
"It's sad that people have to resort to such crazy schemes to make money," said Rebecca Whitehouse, a first-year retailing student.
"Why would they try this on a college campus? We're all poor," she said.
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